IzzyOnDroid

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© Vijayanarasimha

It´s almost one year ago now that this website started. Time to look back and ahead: What was achieved? What might be coming? And what can you win (oh, yes!)? Read on!

© Keoni Cabral (CC)

While most permissions an app requests are somehow understandable, some are not – and others even sound ludicrous. What stands behind them? Why do some apps request permissions that don’t seem to make sense? Do they really need them – or is there „anything else“?

© Izzy

Adebar stands for „Android DEvice Backup And Restore“. It creates scripts you can use to backup/restore your device via ADB (including freezing apps), and partly „documents“ your device. What’s more? Read on!

© Galen Lyle

Some apps simply request too much permissions we either do not understand – or understand them pretty well and do not want them. Be it for privacy reasons, or out of anxiety the apps themselves might abuse our trust. Unfortunately, app stores don’t provide a filter for that. Do not fear: StripSearch comes to your rescue!

© Menny G. (CC)

Having written a five-part-tutorial to finally show you how it could be done, I thought it might be a good idea to try it myself (oops?). So this post shows my experiences with a Google-free Android, diary-style.

© Alan Cleaver (CC)

You might have noticed that “IzzyOnDroid” has quite a strong focus on privacy. I want to make it easy to find not only the best rated app for a purpose, but also the least invasive. And give you good hints in my articles. But of course I cared for that as well when building this site. Some sum-up and hints in this article.

© Sylvain Naudin (CC)

You might have seen the one or other tutorial including steps to be performed “via ADB” – and thought installing the entire developers toolkit with its 90+ megabytes being more than just overkill for you. Luckily there are alternatives. And there are several things making ADB useful for the end user. Read on for details.

© Iwan Gabovitch (CC)

Now that we’ve checked around, it might be time for the final step: free our devices from the Google apps, making is as open source as possible – while keeping it as convenient as possible at the same time. We will pick up details from the previous parts, while adding the missing bits. Let’s go!

© pixabay (CC0)

The foundation has been laid: our most private data got its ownCloud, and we know how to get rid of some bloat. Next step is to look for alternatives: are there any replacements doing a better job than the pre-installed originals – at least in some aspects?

© pixabay (CC0)

Before we go on a hunt to find replacements for pre-installed (Google-) apps, another question needs to be answered: How can we get rid of the “originals” we then no longer want to use? As those mostly come pre-installed in system-space, they cannot simply be “uninstalled”. This article will present some solutions and work-arounds.